OldGuyInOregon
Member
Stupid-ass old guy idea and request for comments...
Lights are 4x 4ft T5HO, w/ LED/CFL supplemental lighting. My style of growing is best characterized as bonsai, although I call it "scrog without a screen". My lighting is very asymmetric (intentionally). I rotate my plants during lights on when I am home so that each part of each of two plants gets the favorable benefit from my supplemental lighting. I rotate 90 degrees "every so often" usually once per few hours. If you are curious, the reason I use asymmetric lighting is that I noticed that plants become asymmetric when one clones or when pests/disease/etc. strike. By pruning and then leaving these areas in front of my Cree royal blue LED's a few days I can definitely increase green growth both leaf and bud there. Eventually the plant fills out and then back to equal distribution of light.
I was just thinking, if I build a motorized stand for my plants, they can be rotated without me doing anything. So a circular pedestal, mounted on a motor with either a speed controller or a timer, one plant on the pedestal. This idea is good for me because: reduces risks of a human physically moving the plant, creates more uniform rotation, reduces the risk of leaving a part of the plant in front of the supplimental lamps "too long", allows unattended plant care, others? If I want to focus the lights on just one area, all I do is turn off the motor.
I know that people put lights and plant carts on rails. Moving the lights (at least in my situation) is definitely not the right idea. Moving the plants linearly also would not be good for several reasons. I am starting to like the idea of automated rotation.
Is anybody else doing this? Also, I am curious whether constant rotation would be better, or whether "rotate and wait" like I physically do now is better? Any comments you'd care to share? Peace!
Lights are 4x 4ft T5HO, w/ LED/CFL supplemental lighting. My style of growing is best characterized as bonsai, although I call it "scrog without a screen". My lighting is very asymmetric (intentionally). I rotate my plants during lights on when I am home so that each part of each of two plants gets the favorable benefit from my supplemental lighting. I rotate 90 degrees "every so often" usually once per few hours. If you are curious, the reason I use asymmetric lighting is that I noticed that plants become asymmetric when one clones or when pests/disease/etc. strike. By pruning and then leaving these areas in front of my Cree royal blue LED's a few days I can definitely increase green growth both leaf and bud there. Eventually the plant fills out and then back to equal distribution of light.
I was just thinking, if I build a motorized stand for my plants, they can be rotated without me doing anything. So a circular pedestal, mounted on a motor with either a speed controller or a timer, one plant on the pedestal. This idea is good for me because: reduces risks of a human physically moving the plant, creates more uniform rotation, reduces the risk of leaving a part of the plant in front of the supplimental lamps "too long", allows unattended plant care, others? If I want to focus the lights on just one area, all I do is turn off the motor.
I know that people put lights and plant carts on rails. Moving the lights (at least in my situation) is definitely not the right idea. Moving the plants linearly also would not be good for several reasons. I am starting to like the idea of automated rotation.
Is anybody else doing this? Also, I am curious whether constant rotation would be better, or whether "rotate and wait" like I physically do now is better? Any comments you'd care to share? Peace!
